This Victorian style building, constructed in 1862, has been described as “one of the prettiest courthouse squares in America.” In 1765, Frederick citizens assembled in the courtyard and burned effigies of government officials in demonstration of the Stamp Act. This is considered to be the first public uprising against the monarchist rule, occurring several years before the Boston tea party. Busts of Maryland’s first governor Thomas Johnson and Supreme Court Justice Roger B. Taney are displayed in the courtyard.
This building replaced the original courthouse on the site that burned on May 8, 1861, with the bell in the cupola eerily tolling its own death knell as the roof began to collapse. Brick and iron fortify the present structure, a model of fireproof construction when it was completed in 1862. In 1986 the city government moved into the old courthouse.
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